Academic Symposium on China's Human Rights Development

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of China＇ s reform and opening up, the China Society for Human Rights Studies （CSHRS） held an academic symposium named China＇s Thirty Years of Reform and Opening up and Human Rights Development, on December 2-3, 2008 in Beijing. Attending were Wang Chen, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China （CPC） Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office, and Luo Haocai, president of the CSHRS. Both spoke at the symposium, which gathered some 60 human rights experts from all over China.

Academic Research in China on National Human Rights Institutions

I. Symposium on National Human Rights Institutions and Research Topics Academic research in the Chinese mainland on national human rights institutions started in February 2003. From October 16-17, 2004, the China University of Political Science and Law organized an international sympo- sium in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on research about national human rights protection institutions, inviting experts from Australia, South Africa and Canada to brief the symposium on related information concerning the Asia-Pacific region and South Africa as well as to provide information about Canada＇s National Human Rights Commission. Chinese participants also discussed the possibility of establishing a national human rights organization in China.

The Four Categories of Chinese Discourse on Human Rights and Their Interrelationships

In China,the main discourse on human rights can be classified into four categories:political discourse,policy discourse,institutional discourse,and academic discourse.These four categories show significant differences in terms of the context,content,mode of expression,characteristics,and functions of the discourse.They cannot be simply equated or interchangeable with one another.However,they also rely on,restrict,and promote each other,and under certain conditions,they can be transformed into one another.It is needed to prevent imbalances,mismatches in context,isolation,and inadequate translation among human rights discourses.Meanwhile,it is essential to promote balanced development among different discourses,where each discourse maintains its own boundaries,refers to one another,and undergoes accurate translation,in order to construct their healthy interrelationships.Exploring appropriate methods of translation between discourses is an important and worthwhile topic for research in Chinese human rights discourse.It holds significant practical significance and academic value in constructing the Chinese human rights discourse system.

Academic Discourse Right/Power and the Development of Chinese Sociology

As a kind of right （quanli 权利）, academic discourse rights include the right to create and innovate, to endow with meaning and to academic autonomy. As a kind of power （quanli权力）, it refers to the power to guide, judge, control and so on. These rights and powers have been pursued as Chinese sociology developed for over a century. At the inception of sociology in China, Yan Fu and other scholars experimented with localizing sociology and innovating academic discourse. Fei Xiaotong＇s life covered nearly 20 years of Chinese sociology＇s early development and another 56 years of its later development; his academic journey epitomizes the historical development of Chinese sociology. The only way for Chinese sociology to move from the periphery of world academia into the center is to endeavor, on the basis of theoretical self-consciousness, to seize the commanding heights of academic discourse rights.